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PRESIDENT WILSON, 

HONORARY CITIZEN OF FLORENCE 



(JULY 4"' I9I8) 




ASSISTENZA E RESISTENZA MORALE 
ORSANMICHELE - FLORENCE. ITAL Y 

JAN )9}9 




Resolutions of the Comunal Council 



^he Comunal Council of Florence, having 
met in Qeneral Extraordinary Jlssembly on the 
29th day of June, 1918' 

CONSIDEIIINQ VHJV 

^he United States of North America ce- 
lebrates on the fourth da^ of the month of July, 
the solemn anniversary of the proclamation of 
their Independence, a golden date in the history 
of human civilization ; 

AND CONSIDERING THAT: 

Tjhe Jlmerican Union is novo the all^ of 
our Nation in the war for the defence of Li- 
berty, and the Independence of T^eoples against 
the forces of barbaric ferocity and overbearing 
despotism let loose against them ; 

JN'D CONSIDE%INQ THAT: 

^he President of the Union, M; promoting 
the magnanimous entrance of the United States 
into the titanic struggle, has in his speeches and 
in his messages. With unflagging and farseeing 
faith ever spoken the Word which stands for 
the ideals of Liberty^ and of Civilization; 



With the object of rendering wider and 
more fertile the spiritual bonds which are being 
forged between the ^oung Jlmerican Nation, 
and the ancient Comune of Florence, to which 
belonged Paolo Dal Pozzo Toscanelli, the ori- 
ginator of that bold design which was later 
carried out in the person of Christopher Co- 
lumbus; Amerigo Vespucci to whom fell the 
good fortune of having the new world named 
after him; Giovanni da Verrazzano the discoverer 
of the river which took, its name from Hudson ; 

And considering it most appropriate to share, 
in this year of common action, ever to remain 
memorable, to take part in the Jlnniversaty of 
the friendly Nation, and to honour her in the 
person of her T^resident, by causing him to be 
enrolled in that Citizenship, in which were 
inscribed immortal names representative of the 
Jiction and 'thought of Centuries. 

TiESOLVETi THAT 

WOODROW WILSON 

President of the United States of North America 
be proclaimed an Honorary Citizen of Florence. 



It is ordered that the present ^Resolutions 
be presented to the new Honorary Citizen in 
the form of a Diploma, bearing the Vermillion 
Lily, no longer a symbol of division but of 
harmony, and subscribed to by the Syndic 
Gonfaloniere of the People and Comune, and 
by his Jlssessors. 



FROM THE WAR MESSAGE DELIVERED 
BY PRESIDENT WILSON BEFORE 
THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS ON 
APRIL 2, 1917. 



• •♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ 
** The present German submarine war- 
fare against commerce is a warfare against 
mankinds 

** It is a war against all nations, Ame- 
rican ships have been sunk, American 
lives taken, in ways which it has stirred 
us very deeply to learn of, but the ships 
and people of other neutral and friendly 
nations have been sunk and overwhelmed 
in the waters in the same way. There 
has been no discrimination *\ 



** The chaflenge is to all mankind. Each 
nation must decide for itself how it will 
meet it. The choice we make for ourselves 
must be made with a moderation of counsel 
and a temperateness of judgement befitting 
our character and our motives as a Nation, 
We must put excited feeling away. Our 
motive will not be revenge or the victo- 
rious assertion of the physical might of the 
Nation, but only the vindication of right, 
of human right, of which we are only a 
single champion *\ 
♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦,♦♦,♦», 

With a profound sense of the solemn and 
even tragical character of the step I am tak- 
ing and of the grave responsibilities which 
it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to 
what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise 



that the Congress declare the recent course 
of the Imperial German Government to be 
in fact nothing less than war against the 
Government and people of the United States; 
that it formally accept the status of belli- 
gerent which has thus been thrust upon it; 
and that it take immediate steps not only 
to put the country in a more thorough 
state of defense^ but also to exert all its 
power and employ all its resources to bring 
the Government of the German Empire to 
terms and end the war *\ 
********** * * * * 

** Neutrality is no longer feasible or de- 
siderable where the peace of the world is 
involved and the freedom of its peoples, 
and the menace to that peace and free- 
dom lies in the existence of autocratic 
governments, backed by organized force 
which is controlled wholly by their will, 
not by the will of their people* We have 
seen the last of neutrality in such circum- 
stances* 
♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦♦♦♦ ♦ 

** We are now about to accept the gage 
of battle with the natural foe to liberty, 
and shall, if necessary, spend the whole 
force of the nation to check and nullify 
its pretensions and its power* We are glad 
now that we see the facts with no veil of 
false pretense about them, to fight thus 
for the ultimate peace of the world and 
for the liberation of its peoples, the Ger- 
man peoples included ; for the rights of 
nations, great and small, and the privilege 



X 



of men everywhere to choose their way 
of life and of obedience* 

** The world must be made safe for de- 
mocracy* Its peace must be planted upon 
the tested foundations of political liberty. 
We have no selfish ends to serve. We de- 
sire no conquest, no dominion. We seek 
no indemnities for ouselves, no material 
compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely 
make. We are but one of the champions 
of the rights of mankind. We shall be sa- 
tisfied when those rights have been made 
as secure as the faith and the freedom of 
nations can make them *\ 
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦.♦ 
** It is a distressing and oppressive duty, 
gentlemen of the Congress, which I have 
performed in thus addressing you. There 
are, it may be, many months of fiery trial 
and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful 
thing to lead this great, peaceful people into 
war, into the most terrible and disastrous 
of all wars, civilization itself seeming to 
be in the balance. 

** But the right is more precious than 
peace, and we shall fight for the things 
which we have always carried nearest 
our hearts — for democracy, for the right 
of those who submit to authority to have 
a voice in their own Governments, for 
the rights and liberties of small nations, 
for a universal dominion of right by such 
a concert of free people as shall bring 
peace and safety to all nations and make 
the world itself at last free. 

** To such a task we can dedicate our 



lives and our fortunes, everything that we 
are and everything that we have, with the 
pride of those who know that the day has 
come when America is privileged to spend 
her blood and her might for the principles 
that gave her birth and happiness and 
the peace which she has treasured* 
** God helping her, she can do no other *\ 

M.r WILSON ON WAR DUTY 

(At a Red Cross mass meeting, May 18, 1918, 
at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York). 

♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ «« 

** There are two duties with which we 
are face to face* The first duty is to win 
the war* And the second duty is that which 
goes hand in hand with it, is to win it 
greatly and worthily, showing not only the 
real quality of our power, but the real 
quality of our purpuse and of ourselves* Of 
course the duty that we must keep in the 
foreground until it is accomplished is to win 
the war* I have heard gentlemen recently 
say that we must get five million men 
ready* Why limit to to five milion? I have 
asked the Congress of the United States to 
name no limit because Congress intends, 
I am sure, as we all intend, that every 
ship that can carry men or supplies shall 
go laden upon every voyage, with every 
man and every supply she can carry* 

** And we are not to be diverted from 
the grim purpuse of winning the war by 
any insincere approaches upon the subject 
of peace* I can say with a clear conscience 



that I have tasted those intimations and 

have found them insincere* I now recognize | 
them for what they are, an opportunity to 

have a free hand, particulary in the East, [ 

to carry out purposes of conquest and [ 

exploitation. Every proposal with regard \ 

to accomodation in the West involves a [ 

reservation with regard to the East, [ 

« Now, so far as I am concerned I intend | 
to stand by Russia as well as France. The 

helpless and friendless are the very ones s 
that need friends and succour, and if any 
man in Germany thinks we are going to 

sacrifice anybody for our own sake I tell f 

them now they are mistaken, for the glory j 

of this war, my fellow-citizens, so far as j 

we are concerned, is that it is, perhaps for t 

the first time in history, an unselfish war ; I 

I could not be proud to fight for a selfish | 
purpuse, but I can be proud to fight for 

mankind. If they wish for peace, let them \ 

come forward through accredited repre- I 

sentatives and lay their terms on the table* | 

We have laid ours, and they know what | 
they are* » 



M.r WILSON'S MESSAGE TO THE ITA- 
LIAN PEOPLE CELEBRATING THE 
THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE EN- 
TRANCE OF ITALY INTO THE WAR. 

WASHINGTON May 23, 1918.. 

** I am sure, I am speaking for the 
people of the United States in sending to 
the Italian people warm fraternal greetings 



upon this, the anniversary of the entrance 
of Italy into this great war, in which there 
is being fought out once and for all the ir- 
repressible conflict between free self-govern- 
ment and the dictation of force. 

** The people of the United States have 
looked with profound interest and sympathy 
upon the efforts and sacrifices of the Italian 
people, and are deeply and sincerely intere- 
sted in the present and future security of 
Italy. They are glad to find themselves 
associated with a people to whom they are 
bound by so many personal and intimate 
ties in a struggle whose object is the libe- 
ration, freedom, the rights of men and 
nations to live their own lives, and deter- 
mine their own fortunes, the rights of the 
weak, as well as of the strong, and the 
maintenance of justice by the irresistible 
force of free nations leagued together in the 
defence of mankind. With ever increasing 
resolution and force we shall continue to 
stand together in this sacred common 
cause. 

« America salutes the gallant kingdom 
of Italy and bids her godspeed » . 

WILSON. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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